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I use a Wacom Graphire4 which I believe has recently been superseded by the Wacom Bamboo. They make a huge difference to mapping and I couldn't do my maps without it. It cost me £80 but a quick hunt on ebay will find lots that are cheaper.

I'd stick with Wacom, having had a nisis before. You pay more, but it is worth it. Also, don't worry about going small. I use an A6 drawing area and it is quite enough. It also fits in my laptop case.

being new to mapping and its software in general, I thought about buying myself a graphic tablet.

Are there others on this site that use them, if so is it wise to buy one or not?

does it give you more control with the various programs?
I would really apriciate all of your comment.
thnx allready.

I just got a Wacom Bamboo Fun (med size) which is about 8 x 6 in terms of active area. Cost around $200 USD. Now that I have had it for a bit, I would probably have been happy with the small size (5.5 x 4 if I recall correctly) which is half the price as it is a bit slower to move from one part of the screen to another than my trackball (which I love and damn MS don't make anymore!)

I just started trying to seriously do some maps about 8 weeks ago, and got my tablet 2 weeks ago. I don't use the table for everything as I am still finding it a bit hard to use for general tasks, you CANNOT beat it for fine control stuff like rivers where you want variable width from one end of the line to the other. With the tablet, you can get amazing control that I could not even dream of replicating with a mouse (and I have tried.....)

Originally Posted by torstan

I use a Wacom Graphire4 which I believe has recently been superseded by the Wacom Bamboo. They make a huge difference to mapping and I couldn't do my maps without it. It cost me £80 but a quick hunt on ebay will find lots that are cheaper.

I'd stick with Wacom, having had a nisis before. You pay more, but it is worth it. Also, don't worry about going small. I use an A6 drawing area and it is quite enough. It also fits in my laptop case.

Also, check out craigslist.com as many people advertise stuff they are getting rid of there. I found one ad in my area where someone was getting rid of one tablet that retails over $500 USD for around $300 as he wanted a larger, more expensive model and it was only 8 months old. I would have bought it, but could not come up with the extra $100

Wacom

The advice I received was that Wacom really makes the best tablets with the best software support. I never tried another type of tablet so I can't verify the advice. I do like the Wacom I have though.

The size has a lot to do with how much movement you naturally put into drawing and how free your arm is at the computer you work at. If you only have little wrist actions you probably won't be constrained by a small tablet.

I've been using a 4-inch X 6-inch Wacom Intuos in Photoshop lately. A lot of things are much easier with it. I'm no virtuoso yet, but already I have more techniques at my disposal than I had before. I'm trying to do as much "painting" with the tablet as I can for my June challenge entry. I can't imagine how much time it would take to do it with a mouse.

I spent full retail buying this one for my wife and haven't regretted it a bit, even though she's barely used it.